Right-wing shock jock Rush Limbaugh evacuates Florida home after claiming Irma warnings are a hoax

Conservative radio host suggests reason for deception is an attempt to push 'climate change agenda' and 'create panic'

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Rush Limbaugh has evacuated South Florida only days after he claimed Hurricane Irma would not hit the US and accused scientists and the media of lying.

The conservative radio host suggested the reason for the deception was an attempt to push a “climate change agenda” and “create panic”.

Despite his reservations, which were announced on his radio show, Mr Limbaugh confirmed he was leaving the area and could not host his show for a few days as it would be “legally impossible” to do so outside of South Florida.

“May as well… announce this. I’m not going to get into details because of the security nature of things, but it turns out that we will not be able to do the program here tomorrow,” Mr Limbaugh said.

“We’ll be on the air next week, folks, from parts unknown.”

Moments before the announcement, he defended his previous remarks claiming the hurricane would not reach Florida.

“The views expressed by the host of this program [are] documented to be almost always right 99.8 per cent of the time. There is a reason for that because we engage in a relentless and unstoppable pursuit of the truth and we find and proclaim it and that happens to drive people crazy,” he said, according to Think Progress.

Mr Limbaugh had previously said media coverage on Hurricane Irma was simply an attempt to create “fear and panic”.

“So there is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and best ways to do it. You can accomplish a lot just by creating fear and panic. You don’t need a hurricane to hit anywhere,” Mr Limbaugh said on his show.

“All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and more dangerous, and you create the panic, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.”

He also claimed to have read the paths of the hurricane and was certain it would curve into the Atlantic and not hit the US.

“If it ends up not hitting where you are, hits somewhere else, you might temporarily breathe a sigh of relief, but you’re still going to think, ‘Man, there might be something to this climate change,” Mr Limbaugh said.

“Do not doubt me, with everything being politicised, of course it is an objective of some, not everybody, of course, but some of the people involved here.”